Here is a question from our community:

My husband and I have our N400 petition pending for almost 18 months. We passed our interview in July 2007 and had our 2nd fingerprinting 2 weeks ago. We were also informed that we have been cleared from background check. We have to leave for an international assignment in December and would like to understand the steps we need to take so it does not impact/disrupt our naturalization process, in case we do not get called for oath by then.

Q. How soon can I leave my petitioning employer once I get my green card approval?

Here is another question from one of our clients posted in our extranet forclients.com.

Qo. My Priority date became current as per August bulletin.

I and my wife are applied for I-485 on July 2007 (PF is done and got EAD and AP docs). At that time my son was in India and i could not apply for him.

Right now i am working on his I-485 paperwork and targeting to send his application to INS/Nebraska on August first itself (through your Law firm).

I normally do not answer questions about filling out forms. But in this case, one of our community members has raised issues that I think are generic enough to be generally applicable. I am posting this for all of you who run into a similar situation. Regards to all. Rajiv.

__________________________________

Here is another set of questions that may be of interest to you folks.

Facts from one of our clients
I have applied for 485 as the primary applicant and my wife is the secondary applicant. Right now both of us are on H1 visa. We had applied for EAD and AP and intend to apply for renewal soon as we near 120 days.
I am on my 7th year of H1 and my wife is on 2nd year of H1 and 3 year of (H1 and H4 combine). Her current H1 expires on April 2010.
I intend to remain on H1 itself and have no intentions of using my EAD.

This morning, I was working on explaining to a client (whom I respect greatly), one of the foremost musicians from India, how EB1 (Extraordinary Ability) category applies to musicians and performers. As I was sending him the basic information on EB1 category, I thought I will share the general criteria with all of you. This information is for EA, generally and applies to all fields - not just music. See attached.

Regards to all. Rajiv.

This issue has come up several times. Here is what USCIS says:

USCIS Considerations to expedite Cases

All expedite requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and are granted at the discretion of the Director. The criteria are as follows:

* Severe financial loss to company or individual
* Extreme emergent situation
* Humanitarian situation
* Nonprofit status of requesting organization in furtherance of the cultural and social interests of the United States

The news item and related documents are available here:
http://www.immigration.com/newslette...prmprocss.html

Please note, for now (June 2008), premium processing is only available if you meet ALL of the current requirements:
1. Your are currently on H-1;
2. Your H-1 status is expiring within 60 days when you apply for I-140 premium processing; and